German submarine sinks Lusitania

Author

Website Name

Year Published

Title

URL

Access Date

December 09, 2016

Publisher

A+E Networks

The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel’s course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes.

Germany justified the attack by stating, correctly, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship, and that it was carrying munitions. It was primarily a passenger ship, however, and among the 1,201 drowned in the attack were many women and children, including 128 Americans. Colonel Edward House, close associate of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was in London for a diplomatic visit when he learned of the Lusitania‘s demise. America has come to the parting of the ways, he wrote in a telegram to Wilson, when she must determine whether she stands for civilized or uncivilized warfare. We can no longer remain neutral spectators.

Wilson subsequently sent a strongly worded note to the German government—the first of three similar communications—demanding that it cease submarine warfare against unarmed merchant ships. Wilson’s actions On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland.

Faced with the overpowering size and strength of the British Royal Navy at the outset of World War I, Germany realized its most effective weapon at sea was its deadly accurate U-boat submarine. Consequently, in February 1915, the German navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, declaring the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be subject to attack.

Though the United States was officially neutral at this point in the war, Britain was one of the nation’s closest trading partners, and tensions arose immediately over Germany’s new policy. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. On the same page, an advertisement announced the imminent sailing of the British cruise liner Lusitania from New York back to Liverpool.

prompted his secretary of state, the pacifist William Jennings Bryan, to resign. His successor, Robert Lansing, took quite a different view of the situation: the sinking of the Lusitania had convinced him that the United States could not maintain its neutrality forever, and would eventually be forced to enter the war against Germany.

On the German side, fear of further antagonizing Wilson and his government led Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to issue an apology to the U.S. and enforce a curb on the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. By early 1917, however, under pressure from military leaders who advocated an aggressive naval policy as an integral component of German strategy in World War I, the government reversed its policy, and on February 1, 1917, Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare. Two days later, Wilson announced that the U.S. was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. The United States formally entered World War I on April 6, 1917.

Also on this day

On May 7, 1994, Norway’s most famous painting, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo. Thefragile painting was recovered undamaged at a hotel in Asgardstrand, about 40 miles south of Oslo, police said.
The iconic 1893 painting of a...

On this day in 1763, Major Henry Gladwin, British commander of Fort Detroit, foils Ottawa Chief Pontiac’s attempt at a surprise attack. Romantic lore holds that Gladwin’s Seneca mistress informed him of the western Indians’ plans for an uprising.
When Pontiac arrived at the fort with his men, who were...

On this day in 1998, the German automobile company Daimler-Benz–maker of the world-famous luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz–announces a $36 billion merger with the United States-based Chrysler Corporation.
The purchase of Chrysler, America’s third-largest car company, by the Stuttgart-based Daimler-Benz marked the biggest acquisition by a foreign buyer of any U.S....

Following two days of intense fighting in Virginia’s Wilderness forest, the Army of the Potomac, under the command of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, moves south. Grant’s forces had clashed with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in a pitched and confused two-day battle in which neither...

Leonid Brezhnev, one of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s most trusted proteges, is selected as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet—the Soviet equivalent to the presidency. This was another important step in Brezhnev’s rise to power in Russia, a rise that he later capped by taking control of the...

Dr. H. H. Holmes, one of America’s first well-known serial killers, is hanged to death in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although his criminal exploits were just as extensive and occurred during the same time period as Jack the Ripper, the Arch Fiend–as Holmes was known–has not endured in the public’s memory the...

On this day in 1902, Martinique’s Mount Pele begins the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The following day, the city of Saint Pierre, which some called the Paris of the Caribbean, was virtually wiped off the map.
Mount Pele, the name meaning bald in French, was...

Pontiac’s Rebellion begins when a confederacy of Native American warriors under Ottawa chief Pontiac attacks the British force at Detroit. After failing to take the fort in their initial assault, Pontiac’s forces, made up of Ottawas and reinforced by Wyandots, Ojibwas, and Potawatamis, initiated a siege that would stretch into...

On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack...

In northwest Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for...

On this day in 1901, Gary Cooper, who will become famous for his performances in such movies as High Noon and The Pride of the Yankees, is born in Helena, Montana.
Cooper grew up on the ranch owned by his wealthy father, a Montana Supreme Court Justice. He was educated largely...

Poet Robert Browning is born on this day in 1812 in Camberwell, outside London.
The son of a bank clerk and a musical, religious mother, Robert Browning attended boarding school and studied briefly at the University of London before returning to his parents’ home to continue his education with tutors. He...

In the early morning hours of May 7, 1965, in a Clearwater, Florida, motel room, a bleary-eyed Keith Richards awoke, grabbed a tape recorder and laid down one of the greatest pop hooks of all time: The opening riff of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” He then promptly fell back...

Gary Cooper, the star of High Noon and other classic Westerns, is born in Helena, Montana.
Born Frank James Cooper, he was the son of well-to-do lawyer who eventually won election to the Montana Supreme Court Justice. The family owned a 500-acre ranch near Helena, where Cooper became a skilled...

On this day in 1789, President George Washington attends a ball in his honor. The event provided a model for the first official inaugural ball, held to celebrate James Madison’s ascension to the office ten years later, which then became an annual tradition. Washington was sworn in as the first...

Indiana Pacers guard Reggie Miller scores eight points in 11 seconds to lead his team over the New York Knicks 107-105 on this day in 1995. Miller was famous throughout his career for what became known as “Miller Time,” clutch performances to finish games. This 1995 Eastern Conference semifinal playoff...

Dien Bien Phu falls to the Viet Minh. In March, a force of 40,000 Viet Minh troops with heavy artillery had surrounded 15,000 French soldiers, holding the French position under siege. The Viet Minh guerrillas had been fighting a long and bloody war with French colonial interests for control...

On this day in 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France.
At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the...